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The Samsung Galaxy S III is one of the most popular smartphones in the world, with good reason. We've given a slew of Editors' Choice awards, 4.5-star reviews, and the "Best Phone of 2012" award to Samsung's masterpiece, which combines a big screen, powerful processor, and nearly-universal availability to be the benchmark by which other Android smartphones are measured.

Samsung made some changes to the Android OS which enabled some unusual features on the Galaxy S III. They aren't all obvious, and they aren't all shown in Samsung's witty commercials. These tips and tricks are the tip of the iceberg in terms of what you can do with your Galaxy S III, but they'll hopefully show you something new about your favorite smartphone.

Audio Tricks

Customize your audio.Probably the coolest Galaxy S III exclusive feature, in my mind, customizes phone call audio to your personal sense of hearing. Everyone's ears are different; for instance, as we get older, we have more trouble hearing high frequencies. Samsung's Personalized EQ pumps up the frequencies that sound best to you.

To use Personalized EQ, click on your phone dialer. Then hit Menu, Call Settings, In-call Sound EQ settings, Personalized EQ. Plug in headphones to run the audio check, and the phone will alter the audio to a personalized setting. In my experience, this actually made a difference in the quality of calls.

Hear your phone ring in your purse.Anyone who carries a phone in a bag knows that the bag can really muffle your ringtone. Samsung has another hidden setting to fix this. From your phone dialer, choose Menu, Call Settings, and turn on Increase Volume in Pocket. When the phone is in a dark location such as a pocket or bag, it'll ring more loudly.

Turn off that annoying "bloop" noise.Don't you hate how the Galaxy S III makes that "bloop" noise when you press buttons? Who thought that was a good idea? Eradicate it! Go to Settings, Sound, and turn off both Keytones and Touch Sounds. If you'd rather the phone vibrate slightly rather than "bloop" when you press buttons, turn "Haptic feedback" on. None of this will affect your ringtones, music, or game sounds—it'll just get rid of that incessant blooping.

Shut up the phone quicklyDon't you hate it when your phone is making noise and you're doing something else? Two settings on the Galaxy S III let you shut up your phone quickly. Go to Settings, Motion. Turn on Motion Activation. Scroll down, then pick Turn Over to Mute/Pause and Palm Touch to Mute/Pause. Now, if your phone rings or is playing music, you can silence it by either covering the entire screen with your hand, or flipping it face-down on the table.

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed...
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